‘Loro’ by Paolo Sorrentino Comes to Theaters in NY and LA in September
Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo (Gomorrah, Il Divo).”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth. But where were their children? The grandson was put into the movie to ask the tough questions of his grandfather about his reputation of corruption, but otherwise had no role in the film. In the end, the film was about Veronica’s finally divorcing him.
Il Divo was truly mesmerizing and brought us into a manneristic Italian world of high intrigue, politics, and mystery with people whose looks were as out-of-kilter as the plot, always kept us unbalanced and intrigued. The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946 was told in an extravagant, stunning stylistic manner which caught me completely off guard. It was as if Sorrentino in 2008 appeared out of nowhere with such originality.
I did not see his four or five previous features, but his debut feature in 2001, One Man Up (L’uomo in più), presages the themes of all his movies in that it too was described (on IMDb) as “a stylish and blackly comic look at the dark side of fame. Evocatively set during the eighties, the film charts the decline of two men both named Antonio Pisapia who lead entirely separate yet strangely parallel lives. One (Toni Servillo, Gomorrah) is a pop singer who finds himself washed up after a sex scandal ends his run of success; the other (Andrea Renzi) a football hero whose playing career is abruptly cut short by injury. Sharply observed and featuring excellent performances from the two leads, Sorrentino’s compelling film explores the personal consequences wrought by cruel reversals of fortune.” The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival, was nominated for three David di Donatellos, and won a Silver Ribbon for best new director as well as two Golden Goblets.
In 2004 he completed his second film Le conseguenze dell’amore (The Consequences Of Love). Shown in competition at the Cannes Intl. Film Festival, the film won numerous awards including five David di Donatellos, four Silver Ribbons and five Ciak d’Oro.
In 2006 he made his third film L’amico di famiglia (The Family Friend) which, after competing at the Cannes Festival, was shown in numerous international festivals.
In 2008 with Il divo, starring Toni Servillo, Sorrentino competed at the Cannes Festival for the third time and won the Jury Prize. The film went on to win seven David di Donatellos, five Ciak d’Oro, five Silver Ribbons and an Oscar nomination for best make-up.
In 2011 This Must be the Place was Sorrentino’s first film in English. Starring Sean Penn and Frances McDormand, the film was in competition at the 64th Cannes Intl. Film Festival. It won numerous awards including six David di Donatellos, three Silver Ribbons and four Ciak d’Oro.
In 2013 La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty), starring Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli, saw Sorrentino compete for the fifth time at the Cannes Festival.
The film went on to win many awards including Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and a BAFTA, as well as five important EFA awards including Best European Film, Best Director and Best Actor.
In 2015 Youth — La giovinezza, his second film in English, starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda, competed at 68th Cannes Intl. Film Festival. It earned three European Film Awards: Best European Film, Best European Director and Best European Actor.
In 2016 The Young Pope, starring Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando was Sorrentino’s first TV series. The Young Pope received a Golden Globe nomination.
Sorrentino casts great faces too. The faces of the actors like Dario Cantarelli (A Great Beauty, Nanni Morretti’s We Have a Pope) have added to the allure of Sorrentino’s films. But in this one, he is relying of faces and cheap thrills that do not ingratiate him with this audience of one. I am so disappointed by Sorrentino.
In an interview I had with Sorrentino in 2014 he said, “Flaubert said he wanted to write a book about nothing. This gave him the right to write about the frivolous, gossip, nothing and it acquired a literary standing. Nothingness becomes life. It takes on a life of its own and life’s nothingness is its beauty.”
Well this film remains about nothing. Sure there is a thing about Berlusconi as Trump, but it is still a shallow film about nothing more than a sham of a man and his lousy life, rich with beautiful young nubile anonymous women and subservient men, but nothing.
Tony Servillo is quoted as saying about Sorrentino:
We have something in common which we both cultivate, and that’s a taste for mystery. That has something to do with esteem, with a sense of irony and self-mockery, with certain similar sources of melancholy, and certain subjects or themes of reflection. These affinities are renewed each time we meet, as if it were the first time, without there being any need for a closer relationship between one film and the next. We meet and it’s as if we’ve never been apart. And that means there’s a deep friendship between us, and that’s what so great.
In this movie, there is no mystery, except what happened to the opening figure, the deplorable pimp played by Riccardo Scamarcio whose presence fades away by the end of the movie. Nor is there any sense of irony and self-mockery. Instead, it is as if Sorrentino were relying on his reputation of being outrageous but had nothing to bring to the same old, same old, except gorgeous women.
Watch the trailer here. Putting the opening words of wonder and aggrandizement of this man into the mouths of women who have no thoughts in their heads is a cheat in itself. The only part they play is partying, looking good and barely even fucking. And btw, what is the role of one black body-built male stud in these partying scenes? To add luster?
Sorrentino’s use of crotch shots (some not so good), butts and boobs rivals that of Abdellatif Kechiche’s total loser of a film, Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo, which still made it into Cannes Competition for no other reason than it was by someone who once made a good film (Blue is the Warmest Color). Both films are marathons of vacuous sexy shots of vacuous women, still apparently not passe enough for men getting on in age to oogle and get some thrills from. I thought we were more enlightened today.
Apparently Sorrentino has nothing new to say but had some money to make a movie. So he did. What a bore. Let’s hope he resuscitates himself before the next film.
RELEASE DATE –
Friday, September 20th (NY)
Friday, September 27th (LA & VOD)
SYNOPSIS — Sex, drugs, power, and vice: welcome to the mid-2000s Italy of Silvio Berlusconi, the egomaniac billionaire Prime Minister who presides over an empire of scandal and corruption. Sergio (Riccardo Scamarcio) is an ambitious young hustler managing an escort service catering to the rich and powerful. Determined to move up in the world, Sergio sets his sights on the biggest client of all: Berlusconi (Toni Servillo), the disgraced, psychotically charming businessman and ex-PM currently plotting his political comeback. As Berlusconi attempts to bribe his way back to power, Sergio devises his own equally audacious scheme to win the mogul’s attention.
*Toronto International Film Festival 2018*
*Busan International Film Festival*
*Seattle International Film Festival 2019*
*IFF Boston 2019*
International Sales Agent: Pathe
150 minutes | An IFC Films Release | In Italian with English Subtitles
